double storey - anyone replaced cladding with brick?

Hi Guys,

I'm building the Windermere 32 with Rawson homes and looking at getting the first level of cladding replaced with brick. First floor living is 114m2 - i got quoted $5,500, this is also for standard brick range.

Someone i know who is building Balmoral 38 with Rawson got quoted $4,100, first floor living is at 161m2 and their brick is out of the standard range.

Something worth noting is that the person i know got their tender this time last year, but the price difference seems a bit drastic to me.

Thoughts?

As a person who has been to college and knows what it takes to build a building, not all buildings are built the same. Your friends house may not need any extra engineering by way of a RSJ or some other means to carry the extra load because the upper walls are now being built of brick instead of timber.

In other words your friends upper walls could extend from the lower walls, meaning the footings to take the lower walls load will already be in place and may just need a little beefing up to carry the extra load of the upper walls.

Whereas some of your upper walls are being built over openings with no brick walls underneath them and a being carried by timber beams taking that load and now that they will be brick walls instead of timber walls you need more load carrying components.

I hope I have explained it well enough for you to understand what I mean, saying that I don't know why and can only make an educated guess from what you've posted.




That opening under that bath room could be why it's costing you more IMO.

I know it was recently around $5k for a Balmoral brick to the first floor, so yours seems in the ballpark.

Aside from the extra bricks, on the Balmoral at least, it includes the addition of steel beams to support the new brickwork.

Unfortunately without More Information, Plans, areas , etc...it's only a Estimate
The cost to upgrade a brick selection is approx. 20c/brick
That doesn't include the Engineering, Steel Columns, Beams & Lintels, etc, . hth

An educated guess is better than an uneducated guess don't you think structuralbimguy?

Hmm..My bad..Guessing is the wrong word choice
I have replaced it with estimate/approximate which implies Knowledge, Facts and Experience
Cheers
Chris

Thanks for your advice guys.
I've been told that the balmoral is a different design and has more brickwork on the top floor as standard compared to the Windermere 32.